Author name: SpicyIP

Sufficiency of Disclosure and Patent Rejections

/ By / Patent

Can the Patent Office reject a patent application on one ground and decline to analyse the rest in the name of efficiency? Using the Bombay High Court’s ruling in [Edit: fixed an error in the case name] JFE Steel Corporation v. The Assistant Controller of Patents & Designs, Priyam explores the limits of judicial economy in rejection orders, along with issues relating to insufficient disclosure and foreign prosecution history. Priyam is a 3rd-year student at the National Law School of India

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White Noise: Pantone’s Cloud Dancer, and the Politics of Colour

/ By / Trademark

Pantone’s latest choice for its annual “Colour of the Year,” titled “Cloud Dancer,” a shade of stark white, has triggered an unusually sharp backlash, revealing that colour is never merely aesthetic. In this post, Anjali and Nandita explore how colour, standardisation, and intellectual property intersect to shape taste, power, and ownership. Anjali Tripathi is a final-year B.A. LL.B. student at Jindal Global Law School with an interdisciplinary interest in critical approaches to law, visual storytelling, and design. Nandita Purvi Durgam

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India’s Defining Moment on SEPs: The Supreme Court’s Decision Opens the Door for Policy Leadership

/ By / Patent

The Supreme Court’s disposal of CCI v. Ericsson has triggered significant debate over the respective roles of patent law and competition law in regulating SEPs. Brian Scarpelli explains how this decision creates a crucial policy moment for India to clarify the role of its legal framework in addressing anticompetitive SEP licensing practices. Brian Scarpelli is Senior Global Policy Counsel at ACT | The App Association, where he works on a diversity of legal and policy issues impacting mobile app development

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Dealing Away Fair Dealing: The Curious Case of Fair Dealing and Its Infringement

/ By / Copyright

In this submission to the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, Avani Marudwar argues for decentering fair dealing analysis in Indian Copyright law in exchange for treating fair dealing as one of the components of the copyright system as a whole. She further argues that the GenAI copyright debate presents an opportunity to facilitate a structural relook at Indian Copyright law along these lines. Avani Marudwar is a 5th-year law student at Nirma University and an alumnus of the SpicyIP Summer

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Royalty Raja’s Reformation of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 

/ By / Copyright

In light of the different copyright litigations involving musical maestro Ilaiyaraja, Nivedita Krishnakumar argues for a purposive interpretation of the royalty-sharing provisions provided through the Copyright Amendment Act 2012. In her submission for the SpicyIP-jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, she argues that the 2012 amendment must be seen as a remedial statute, making an argument for a retrospective effect of the royalty sharing provisions within the 2012 amendment. Nivedita Krishnakumar is a second-year law student at Rajiv Gandhi National University

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Thinking Out Loud……Literally: Brains And Boundaries

/ By / Patent

The rise of brain–computer interfaces marks a technological inflection point, blurring the line between cognition and computation. What happens when thoughts become data, and data becomes patentable subject matter? Soumya Juneja, in her post for the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, engages with these questions and assesses whether there is a need to re-examine invention, prior art, and authorship in the age of neurotechnology. Soumya Juneja is an Associate at an IP law firm and a BBA.LLB. (Hons.) graduate from

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Beyond PDFs and Portals: Building ‘Explainable IP’ for a Transparent and Inclusive Indian Innovation Ecosystem

/ By / Copyright, Patent

While India’s IP system has made significant strides in digital accessibility, Rushil Verma, in his submission for the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, explains how it continues to fall short on intelligibility. He suggests that integrating “Explainable IP” could help transform patent and trademark databases from mere document repositories into inclusive, user-centric public knowledge systems. Rushil is a fourth-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune, with a focused academic and professional interest in Intellectual Property Law. Beyond

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Green Patents and Climate Governance: What India Can Learn from Global Leaders in Climate-Tech IP

/ By / Patent

Can patent systems actually accelerate climate action? In his submission for the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, Abhinav Manchanda explores this question and explains how countries around the world are increasingly designing their IP regimes to support green innovation, while India’s green patent framework is still finding its footing. Abhinav is a legal researcher and writer with a keen interest in intellectual property law, climate governance, and technology regulation. His work focuses on examining how legal frameworks, particularly patent systems,

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The Kerly’s Impasse: A Relic of the Past?

/ By / Trademark

Kerly’s impasse is something that one does not encounter regularly in Trademark law. Priyam Mitra, in this post, unpacks what it actually means and asks whether it has any real place in the modern world. Priyam is a 3rd-year student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He is interested in contemporary discussions surrounding intellectual property and criminal law. The Kerly’s Impasse: A Relic of the Past? By Priyam Mitra A very interesting development took place in the

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Applications Open for the SpicyIP Summer School 2026! 

/ By / Innovation, Opportunities

We’re thrilled to announce that Applications for the SpicyIP Summer School 2026 are open! Following the success of our inaugural edition last year (see event report here, and video testimonials here), we’re looking to continue our foray into the offline space, focusing on cultivating critical pluralism in approaching IP law and policy, particularly as it relates to innovation and progress.  This year’s theme “Rethinking IP: Foundations, Faults, and Futures” takes cognizance of the changing times we’re in and will push participants to

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